The BGN News Archive

July 14, 2014

Right off the bat let us say we are so sorry to hear about the passing of
Tommy Ramone. What can we say about the Ramones that you dont already
know...they changed our music and helped begin a new era...that we loved, where
we found out home. Also with Tommy passes the orignal members of the band like
the closing of a book. But Joey, Johnny, Dee
Dee and now Tommy will NEVER be forgotten. And gee
Tommy rode with me in my iconic maroon Maverick from the Groupie Tower days,
while the rest of the band was in the van behind us. A very nice, quiet, smart,
great guy. RIP Tommy Ramone!!

In our goings on for the past week:

Neighborhood Shit played on the big Anti-Nowhere League show
at the Middle East but I missed them. I was able to catch them at the Midway
last Sunday after we had finished putting the BGN together.
A group was hanging outside the club as I pulled up to a spot not far from
the door. That meant it was between sets and probably a small crowd. Both turned
out to be true. Even though these bills have 4 and 5 groups the hardcore sets
are short and there is still down time to fill the hours. I don't blame them
for the short sets these groups expend a lot of energy and can only go so long,
even the young ones. I saw Risk put so much into their first song they
couldn't get back to that level again. ( Read
this review of Risk)

The Neighborhood Shit's lead singer was wearing an
Anti-Nowhere League jacket he must have scooped at the show. The band play in
a dropped D tuning and at times take advantage of that to slow down and go to
the edge of sludge but not for long as they whip up the tempo and yell out some
venom.
Their actual neighborhood is South Boston and they have a
song that deals with the gentrification of the area. Two anti-drug songs have
an extra wallop. I think these are worthy subjects to vent on. I rather hear
that than more songs on the glories of drinking say, but maybe that's just me.

There were only a few guys moshing but despite that one got a bloody nose from
a wayward arm. He had some flow going but after being iced for 10 minutes was
back in there again. This thing of dancing with karate moves is an odd thing.
See the video of Neighborhood Shit to see an example of this. The lead
singer made that point that even though there were not a lot of people there
these these Midway gigs are his favorite and he's glad to play to this group.
I agree. Check out Neighborhood
Shit Reverbnation page...

I find myself back to Midway the next Saturday. Like Willie
Sutton who answered the question, "why do you rob banks?" with 'Because that's
where the money is" I say I end up at the Midway because that's where
the good shows are.

Listening to a few groups on their Bandcamp pages indicated
I should get my earplugs and go. I caught the end of Insidious who are
a very young group. I just heard enough to know they were hardcore and loud.
The lead singer was off the stage and on the floor singing. The crowd was bigger
than the last few times I've gone.

The Down and Outs are a skate punk pop band from Providence.
They did one of the fastest setups I've ever seen. Like 10 minutes. Their take
down? Five minutes. Never seen anything like it. They proceeded to put in a
roaring, driving and jumping set. They obviously come to entertain and they have
the routine down. I've never seen so much jumping on stage. They don't just
jump once but four times in a row or they all jump at the same time with again
multiple jumps. Be sure to look at the video to catch some of this.

The bass player was careening all over the place. He was
bouncing off the wall to the side of the stage just missing a hanging speaker
by inches. The music was the familiar pop punk but at times got a bit too hard
for that label. The guitarist has lots of technique that only shows rarely.
He has a sparkly tone and wonderful touch and has all sorts of chops. He keeps
all this under wraps only letting out short bursts: great restraint. I would
like to hear more but they are doing what they want and it works so I should
shut up. The songs are upbeat pop and the lyrics rise to attention here and
there. Like the heartfelt song they have called You Probably Downloaded This
Song. It pines for the old days of record stores when music had value. A
lot of us feel that way and it's great to have a song like this out there. That
song is on Down and Out's
Reverbnation page. Thoroughly made my day. Score for the Down and Outs.

Next up wasTraces of Empire who I liked when I dipped into their music
page. They are hardcore with a metal edge. I took me a while to warm up to them.
It was either the influence of the Down and Outs or maybe they took a
while to warm up but by the last four or five songs I was loving the unrelenting
barrage of mountainous sound and in your face vocals. Somehow lately that's
what I have a craving for. The Traces
of Empire Bandcamp page.

In other news

Peter Dayton is donating a Dayton designed surfboard to the
7th Annual ArtHamptons Charity Fundraiser. The board is said to be worth
well well over the asking donation price of $1500.00 and besides the board you
get to hang out with Peter as he gives you a tour of his studio and then sit
down and chat with him about music. He will tape the chat and add it to his
archives...and maybe give you a copy too!! Get out the checkbooks kiddies!!
You can bid here:
Surfboard

Some of you might remember the old Howard Johnson Motel that was in the Fenway
area on Boylston Street just out of Kenmore Square. I'd been there with a bunch
of bands over the years. Well its been refurbished and poof - now its a hipster
hotel called The
Verb (as in reverb) , set to open shortly. They recruited well known Boston
Pheonix and WBCN big wigs Steve Mindish and David Beiber as "vibe conservators".
In fact the walls of the hotel will have old Phoenix covers displayed - perfectly
framed of course- to bring the guests through the years in Boston music. They've
got a lot of cool ideas and one of them is that the hotel will be moderatley
priced...nothing like the super cheap rooms they used to have back in the day
but we're talking mid 200's a night, nowadays in Boston that's not so bad. Here's
a story from the Boston Globe on The
Verb

Bob Dubrow of WMBR has been working for months
now to get together a giant Pipeline Party called Pipeline at 25 presents
50 years of Rock. Dates and the list of bands have finally come out! From
the press release: "WMBRs Pipeline! show today announced that it
will be hosting 13 nights of live music performances in the Metro Boston area
this coming fall. Around 80 bands from Boston and environs, as well as a handful
of neighboring Providence acts, will be reuniting to revisit the music they
created in decades past. These acts have been carefully hand-picked to represent
the very best from the Boston rock underground, many of whom crashed through
the strata into the light to gain national recognition and major label contracts."
50 Years of Boston Rock takes place from Friday, September 12 - Sunday, October
12 at 5 or 6 different venues in Boston, Cambridge, Brighton, Somerville and
Arlington. The specific nights, venues and lineups will soon be announced. To
see a list of the bands and it is a long list of all great bands check out Bob
Dubrow's FB page . We've heard that The Voodoo Dolls, The Bags and
Kenne Highland's Gizmos will be playing the same venue and night - cool!

So what's comin' up for gigs?....

It starts right away with Punk Mondays at Church - this week they have
The Pity Whores, Civil Decay, Killing Spree and Spitshiner....5
dollar cover! Cool.

This Tuesday July 15th has FuzzStompin' GarageSoul with Thee Legendary
Rockin' Prophets at O'Brien's. And for this weekend there's for Saturday
there's Tsunami of Sound and 9th Wave at the Plough and Ginger Ibex, Atlas of
Birds and Luke Carlino at Outpost
186 which is a cool little place in Inman Square

This Saturday July 19thGreat Scotts has We're All Gonna Die,
Cocked n' Loaded, Murcielago, Hey Zeus and The Humanoids

Also this Saturday 7/19 Paul Robinson bring theSurfers Healing Show fundraiser for Autuism to town. ATTN: THE
VENUE HAS BEEN CHANGED to the American Legion Post 19 at 124 Highland Avenue,
Somerville there'll be Drive aka Talk Of The
Town, Girl On Top, Stolen Lions,Richie Parsons and the
Cal Cali Band. This is an afternoon show starting at Noon and going until
6PM.

Up north it's Surf, punk, jazz while you bowl and drink...The Beachcombovers,
All girl glitter punk band Tiger Bomb and free jazz by Le Wildcat
are at the Bayside Bowl in Portland ME for the Glam-a-Lam
Festival on Saturday July 19th

Friday July 25th has a great show at Great Scott's with
Razors In The Night (Record Release Party! & we're happy to see they
are out and about again!), Panzerbastard, The Blue Bloods, and Taxi
Driver Friday August 1st has Tsunami of Sound, Tommy White's The Beachcombovers
and Cal Cali's New Experience at Sally O'Brien's

There is just so much going on on Satuday July 26th!!! First off you can tune
in to Brian Young and his Crash Course for the Ravers show on WMFO
91.5 he's gotta a bunch of folks on the show: -Cal & Al with ....Frank
Rowe (Classic Ruins), Anthony Kaczynski (Fireking) -Randy Black and Vikki
Porter

And then that very same evening (7/26) ....over at the Tavern at the End
of the World isCal
Cali's Summertime Soireewith Fireking, Cal Cali Band, Randy Black
& the Heathcroppers and Vikki Porter Band....and at the Tavern
there's NO COVER!!

And at The Lily Pad in Inman Square there's Black Fortress of Opium
and Martin Bisi- the show starts at 10PM. Now Martin
Bisiis a
musician but he is also well know as a great record producer at his BC Studio
in Brooklyn, which he started with the help of Brian Eno, where he's
worked with the likes of Sonic Youth, Swans, Angels of Light, John Zorn,
Foetus and the Dresden Dolls. So at 2PM Saturday July 26th there is a special
showing at The Brattle Theater of the film Sounds
and Chaos: The Story of BC Studio. Martin will be there in person to
speak and answer questions as well!

The we start off August with Beyond
the Beach!! at Sally O'Brien's with Tsunami of Sound,The Beachcombovers,Cal
Cali Band and Boston Monkey

Terry Brenner's bringing The Real Kids and Nervous Eaters
and Greg Allen's Fringe Religion to The Spotlight Tavern in Beverly
on Saturday August 2 Thank you Terry!!

In Boston on August 2 there's the Boston
Fuzzstival at the Middle East....check out this Line up ..28
degrees Taurus, Abadabad, Atlantic Thrills, Beware the Dangers of a Ghost Scorpion!,
Black Beach, Creatorus, Dinoczar, Doug Tuttle, The Fagettes, Fat Creeps, Ghost
Box Orchestra, Gymshorts Magic Shoppe, The New Highway Hymnal, and , The TeleVibes
And At The Sinclair its suck n muck with The SuperSuckers and Muck & The Mires
on Sunday August 3rd.

And in Allston on 8/2 you got the Sprained Ankles, Hope + the Husbands,
Das Muerte and Tsunami of Sound at O'Brien's

There was talk from Wayne about this but now we have a date: August
8th - at
Store 54 - Jerri Cain Rossi (who we all knew and loved in
Black Cat Bone), Randy Black and The Heathcroppers and Monique
Ortiz returns to town with Alien Knife Fight. That's gonna be a great
show folks!! Here's a great write up about Jerri
Cain Rossi from Ribbon Around a Bomb

It's Hixxmas in August folks! On August 23rd at Club Bohemia
at The Cantab it's Hixx and Psychic Dog and more bands TBA...

This should be an interesting evening...at The Cantab August 30th....The
Sound Down Cellar, Nelson Slater (tentative), Annie Activator and
the once a year gig by Love & Flame featuring Danny Rybar, Lady
Carolyn and Joe Viglione along with Mike Quirk on bass, Kenne
Highland on guitar. (they are on at 9:30) and The Guns of Brighton

We finally get to see Dave Minehan with The Replacements since
they are on the bill for the Boston
Calling Show September (5,6 & 7)!

The Legendary Shake Shakers are coming to the Middle East down September
12th.

Saturday September 13th is Matt Burns' 60th Birthday Party! He's
celebrating at The Lizard Lounge. So far the bill includes Litehouse,
The Handymen, Kenne Highland, and more bands to come.....

There's also a excellent show at The Midway on Sept 13. Cal Cali
brings us Lyres-Nervous Eaters-Cal Cali Band- The Invaders (Les Envahisseurs-from
Quebec) - whew!!!

And at TT's in September there's a couple great shows coming up -
Sunday Sept 21 is Queerstock 2014 with Gunpowder Gelatine, Thalia
Zedek, The Kitchenettes and Fur Purse and to finish off the week
on a definite , awesome actually, punk note Friday the 26th they have
The Angry Samoans, Reagan Youth, Burning Streets and The Welsh Boys
opening the night.